Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s 8th Symphony with the San Francisco Symphony won three trophies, including Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto was named best contemporary composition, while David Lang’s Little Match Girl Passion took the small ensemble performance prize. James Levine and the Boston Symphony, guitarist Sharon Isbin, soprano Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet were also winners.
Tag: 01.31.10
Winter’s Bone Big Winner At Sundance
“Writer/director Debra Granik’s mystery-tinged tale about an impoverished teenager (Jennifer Lawrence) searching for her missing, meth-cooking father in the wooded Missouri Ozarks, won both the grand jury prize in the U.S. dramatic category and the prestigious Waldo Salt screenwriting award.”
Composer Krzysztof Penderecki Builds ‘Largest Arboretum In Eastern Europe’
“I have about 1,700 species of trees, almost everything that can grow in our climate. It’s like a park, organized into collections. I have an Italian formal garden, a Japanese garden with a Japanese bridge, and two labyrinths. … The struggle to shape a big park is like making a symphony.”
The Collapse And Rebirth Of The Indie Film Industry
“[Even] as the studio-indie model disintegrates, a new nonstudio model appears to be emerging from the rubble. In recent years, for instance, novice filmmakers and longtime independent insiders have begun experimenting, and finding some success, with new approaches to releasing movies, including self-distribution.”
Baltimore Ballet Turns Ten
“Rightly or wrongly, Baltimore has a reputation as being inhospitable to dance. … Troupes with national profiles have tried and failed to find a large enough audience here to support them. So when [Cem and Elysabeth Catbas] arrived in town in the summer of 2000 and announced plans to found a professional dance company, and said that they were going to do it on a budget about as big as a sequin, many observers were skeptical.”
Could Escondido’s Arts Center Become A Shopping Center?
“Escondido’s performing arts center might become a conglomeration of government offices and retail businesses if city officials follow through on a budget-cutting plan that would shut down the financially struggling facility, but such proposals face a wide variety of hurdles.”